Minister of information, Culture and Tourism, Alajih Laid Mohammed, in continuation of his advocacy campaign against fake news and hate speeches was at Blueprint Newspaper’ Corporate Head Office recently.
According to him, fake news is the present and future danger of the nation’s democracy.
He also said the media has failed to report the giant strides of the President Muhammad Buhari administration.
ABDULRAHMAN ZAKARIYAU brings excerpts.
Executive, NASS impasse As we speak, the executive is reaching out to the legislature, because for us it is about Nigeria; this is not about being partisan.
Election must hold and we want to use this opportunity to preach to the sense of patriotism of our National Assembly members to put their differences with the executive behind them – the real and perceived ones or between the parties behind them and go into their patriotic duty.
And I hope this impasse will be resolved very soon in theinterest of the nation.
Why government very serious about fake news I am afraid that I don’t agree with you; in the run up to the 2015 elections, the President was clearly a victim of hate speech, fake news and they went unchecked.
As far back as I still remember very well, a particular channel ran some very offensive advertorials, documentaries on the person of the President.
He was the victim and not the other way round.
It got so bad that Mr.
President and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu were brutalised; so we are not the purveyors of hate speech or fake news at that time.
Now, as for why we would be launching the campaign against fake news, for two obvious reasons.
We are the government today and we see the danger posed by hate speeches and fake news.
Make no mistake about it is not because we are afraid of elections, but because we are genuinely concerned about the dangers posed by fake news and hate speeches.
We are genuinely concerned that given the already faulty lines of this country in areas of ethnicity or religion, any responsible government should wage this war against fake news and we didn’t start today.
In July 2017, we devoted the entire National Executive Council and the Ministry of Information meeting to fake news and hate speeches in Jos.
Remember that in 2017, also when the media handlers of governors organised a retreat my address again centred on fake news, where I said fake news is another most serious threat to democracy, come 2019.
So, we did not just suddenly wake up yesterday to talk about fake news; we know it is the present and future danger to this country.
President Buhari’s baboon and blood statement in 2015 You talked about the baboon and the blood; just as some of you earlier said, fake news did not start today, neither did hate speeches start today.
Now, what actually happened was that it was a proverb in Hausa which was quoted completely out of context to give the impression that the President then was promising to unleash violence should he lose that election.
The interview took place and it was conducted in Hausa, but, of course, when the mischief makers came out they made it look as if he was inciting violence.
That is not true and that was fake news.
Success of the campaign against hate speeches, fake news since July It was launched about a month ago; by and large, the campaign is meant to create awareness, it is meant to create consciousness and we must thank organisations like The Authority Newspapers that actually wrote a very befitting editorial on it; the NTA today runs adverts against fake news, Vanguard and the Nation newspapers also make it a point of duty that wherever we talk about fake news and hate speeches they give it prominence in their papers.
We will continue to sensitise Nigerians, but I think the feedback we’re getting is that for once Nigerians can now say we don’t believe in fake news.
And that is what we intend to achieve.
Partnership and support for print media You know this administration like every other administration that has come to rescue will have challenges.
What we have done in recent time was to actually see how we can re-distribute the wealth of Nigerians in manner that the benefit will go round all.
We inherited such a very poor purse, but we wish we could do more than we are doing.
That with the very little we have to do a lot; when we came in the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, for instance, the running cost prior to 2015 was N100 million a month, but we don’t get N100 million today in three months in my ministry.
But we are ready and willing to partner with newspapers and media houses, but we have to do so much with so little.
What we are trying to do for the country in an enduring foundation structure and I stand to be challenged that no administration has done so much like our administration within such a short time.
Continuing with inherited projects Whether in the East or South-south, we have not abandoned any project started by the previous administrations.
The Abuja light rail was 62 per cent complete, we completed it within eighteen months when we came in and it is the first of its kind in Africa.
And I can imagine in 20 years’ time, if there is continuity, many of us will leave our cars and come to work by rail.
The good thing that we have done in this government, which is hardly reported, is that we set up an infrastructural presidential advisory fund of N199 billion to ensure that critical infrastructure such as the Lagos Ibadan expressway, such as the second Niger Bridge, will never suffer from funding.
I think what Mr.
President actually said was that, the media is not reporting the giant steps and strides the government has made and, frankly speaking, we found out that unlike in the past when the media would take it on itself to actually find out what is happening; now it’s more like hearsay.
This government is ready to partner with the media in the area of tariff, different associations and what the government did was to balance tariff removal with revenue.
There are only two ways any government can make money – it is either from tariff or tax of all forms.
This government, I can assure you, is ready to make the environment friendly to the media.
This government is going through trying moments, just because of the frugality, just because of the prudent, how many Nigerians know that every minister rents a house from his salary.
Government’s social investment programme The social investment program of this government, the true be told the APC has a party was quite upset that this SIP program was not allocated along any party patronage.
We employed 200,000 unemployed graduates, they applied online nobody ask for anybody’s party affiliation.
As a matter of fact what some people expected was that give that Minister or so person money, but no, it was the was the most transparent system of this government.
o, any one who said that thing is trying to de-market this administration.
And I challenge them that under company of the SIP are the home school feeding programme.
Today, we feed eight million, five hundred thousand people every day with one meal a day in 25 states of the country; you don’t ask the political lineage of a child before is given food.
In those 25 states Primary 1 to 3 are given one meal per day and this has also helped in improving the nutritional deficit of these children.
The governor of Kaduna state said when he started this feeding programme, students will come eat and go, and the next they come eat and go home.
They never believed that it was going to last; today, school enrolment in most North-west states has increased to about 10 to 13 percent.
So, it is not correct that we discriminate against anybody
